I've been living here for a few year but have neglected my interest fly-fishing which I was very active about in my early 20's in England. I recently fished for a couple of days in SW Colorado and it really rekindled my interest. I have all the gear (waders apart but I plan to get some new ones soon) to fish larger creeks and small rivers - which would be the sort of fishing I most prefer using either dry flies or nymphs (I used wet flies too in England).I realize this is probably a vast topic but can any one give me pointers as to good rivers and places to fish ( I live in Burbank, CA) so any good places to stay would be helpful too. Many thanks in appreciation of advice.

The closet decent sized river would most likely be the Kern River. It's about a 2 1/2 - 3 hour ride from Burbank depending on how fast one drives.

The best time of year to fish this river would be mid September through late fall. During the summer, crowds gather along it's banks and could make for quite an unpleasant experience. If you have the time to get into the back country the fly fishing can be very productive for some decent sized Kern River Rainbows. Note the Kern River Rainbow is only native to this drainage which is pretty cool.

If you do a little research you will find that there are two other species of trout native to this part of the Southern Sierras, the Little Kern Golden & the very beautiful Golden Trout.

To get to the Kern River take the 5 north to the 99 on up to Bakersfield and transition on to HWY 178 towards Lake Isabella on then on up to Kernville. I'm quite sure if you Google directions from Burbank to Kernville you'll get clearer directions.

Other options are the Eastern Sierras up the 395 anywhere from 3 1/2 to 6 hours will put you into some pretty decent trout.